Informant's Role Central In Terrorism Case

June 12, 2002|By Tanya Weinberg and Jeff Shields Staff Writers

An FBI informant acting as an eager convert to Islam spent months in a Pembroke Pines mosque looking for Muslim extremists, leading the government to a young Pakistani radical before being dumped by the FBI.

Howard Gilbert, a Canadian Jew who dreamed of becoming a CIA agent, said he infiltrated the Darul Uloom Institute for more than a year as part of an FBI-sanctioned effort to expose Islamic militants. It was Gilbert who alerted the FBI to the extremist leanings of Pakistani immigrant Imran Mandhai, federal authorities say. Gilbert later was taken off the case.

Gilbert's work led indirectly to the indictment of Mandhai, 19, and Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, 24, who are accused of planning to blow up power stations, a National Guard armory and Jewish businesses as part of an Islamic jihad, or holy war, in South Florida.

The roles of Gilbert and a second informant have become a central issue in the sting operation that resulted in the arrest of Mandhai and Jokhan, the most significant terrorism-related prosecution in Florida since Sept. 11. There is no evidence that Mandhai and Jokhan had ties to the Sept. 11 plotters.

The potential for entrapment claims by the defendants tripped up the case for months as government lawyers debated whether to prosecute them, and how. Defense lawyers already have attacked Gilbert's actions, and the trial promises to question how far the government should sensibly go in luring would-be terrorists.

Gilbert said he took Mandhai to shooting ranges to practice with a pistol and rifle, that he taught him to swim after Mandhai expressed interest in "military scuba," and that he coached him in hand-to-hand combat in a Hollywood park. The Broward Community College student was excited to train "in the back yard of the Jews he wanted to kill," Gilbert said.

Father: Son was set up

Mandhai's father, Muhammad Farooq Mandhai, said Gilbert and a second FBI informant set up his son. Defense attorneys say they want to talk to Gilbert, and their defense will hang on their ability to convince a jury that any conspiracy was one generated largely by Gilbert and his replacement, an Arab known to Mandhai only as "Mohammad."

"What people in this community have to realize is how dangerous a government informant can be, and how manipulative," said federal public defender Robert Berube. He represented Mandhai until a conflict of interest forced him off the case last week.

Berube has suggested Gilbert concocted key evidence, including two documents listing the requirements for jihad that were presented at Mandhai's detention hearing in May.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI have distanced themselves from Gilbert -- he is not alluded to in the indictment, and they have not contacted him about testifying.

The FBI ordered him to cease all involvement two months before it opened a criminal investigation against Mandhai in March 2001. Gilbert said he received up to $6,000 for his work between 2000 and 2001. He was outraged to learn that FBI Special Agent Paul Carpinteri testified at Mandhai's detention hearing that the FBI did not pay Gilbert for work on the case.

Gilbert's work as an operative remains classified, but federal law enforcement sources now concede he probably was paid as he built his association with Mandhai. When Carpinteri testified, he was unaware of Gilbert's classified intelligence mission, according to two federal law enforcement sources.

In a series of interviews with the Sun-Sentinel, Gilbert retraced his role in the investigation, which started as an intelligence-gathering operation in 1999, Gilbert said. Federal law enforcement sources familiar with the case corroborated much of his story.

According to both sides, the relationship began to deteriorate around January 2001. Gilbert wanted to be paid $3,000 a month. The FBI refused. The FBI asked him to wear a recording device and testify as part of a criminal case. Gilbert, who said testifying would jeopardize his work as an intelligence operative, balked.

"If I had testified, how could I go on to work for the CIA?" said Gilbert, who saw his work for the FBI as a "resume builder" for eventual employment with the CIA.

Gilbert, a 33-year-old bodyguard and Hollywood Hills High School graduate, revealed himself reluctantly to the Sun-Sentinel only after he had been dismissed by the FBI and identified in open court. He describes himself as a patriot bent on fighting terrorism.

From the time he was a small boy, Gilbert -- now grown into a 340-pound man with a fondness for firearms and strippers -- preferred Soldier of Fortune magazine to Sports Illustrated. He says he parlayed FBI informant work on the cargo theft task force into counter-terrorism with a plan to gather names for a terrorist watch list.

Gilbert says he met with Special Agent Keith Winter who liked his plan to attend mosques projecting an image that would appeal to extremists who could then be identified, and that Winter authorized him to go forward. Winter would not comment.